WORLD MUSIC

This blog has been created to introduce "the other" world music: less unknown artists, ethnic musical instruments, rare discogaphies, world music travel and music festivals... Comments are well come!!.

domingo, 17 de noviembre de 2013

Georgia
is a small mountainous country situated in the Caucasus. It is bordered in the
south-west by Turkey and Armenia, in the east by Azerbaijan, in the west by the
Black Sea and in the north by Russia Federation (Karachay-Cherkessia,
Kabardino-Balkiria-Ossetia, Ingushetia, Chechnya and Dagestan).

Map taken from Lonely Planet web page

Georgia’s
population is about 5 million. Ethnic Georgians form about 85% of population.
The remaining are formed by ethnic groups from the neighbourhood regions such Abkhazians,
Armenians, Ossetians, Azerbaijanis and Russians; ex -soviet countries such as Belarusians,
Bulgarians, Estonians, poles, and Ukrainians. There also Turks, mainly in the
south, a significant Jewish community and Iranian immigrants.

Despite
the Russian/soviet influence, Georgia has its own non-indo-European language
and its own writing system. It comes from the Kartvelian family group, which
includes Georgian, Svanetian (north-western mountains of Svanetia region), Megrelian
(western regions of Samegrelo and Abkhazia) and
Laz (in south coast of Black Sea).

Georgia adopted the Christianity in 337, and
large majority of Georgian population is Christian Orthodox. There are also
small communities of Georgian, Jews and Muslims (near the Azerbaijan border). During
centuries many churches has been built.

The Bagrati Cathedral, the Gelati
Monastery and the medieval religious monuments of Mtskheta are in the list of
Unesco World Heritage list.

Gelati Monestery

Inside de Gelati Monastery Chruch

Mtskheta Cathedral

Tbilisi is the
capital of Georgia. The old town is very pleasant and it can be
visited on foot. The Matkvari river cross the city giving delightful sights
from Meidan bridge. It is still possible to see old houses with nice balconies,
beautiful small lanes and many cafes and bars in the pedestrian Erekle II and
Sharden streets. You can start to walk down from Rustaveli to Betlemis squares.
The main sights in Tbilisi are the Tsminda Sameba Cathedral, Metekhi Church,
Nariqala Fortress, Sioni Cathedral and the Museum of Georgia.

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Tbilisi

The
Georgia highlights near Tbilisi (one day trip) are the Jvari Church and,
Svetitskhoveli Cathedral in Mtskheta and the Uplistsikhe pre-Christian temple
caves near Gori.

To the east at one-two days trip you can find the Bodbe
Convent near the nice small town of Sighnaghi and the interesting Davit Gareja
complex of old monasteries near the Azerbaijan border in the beautiful desertic
and remote place. Near Telavi you can visit the Alavardi cathedral and the
Gremi citadel.To the north in one day trip you can visit Ananuri church, Geregeti Semeba Monastery, Gori with the Uplistsikhe caves.

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Gerati Semeba Monastery

To
the west at about 4 hours trip there is the second large city of Georgia:
Kutaisi. The most interesting is the Bragati Cathedral and at 6 Km the
wonderful Motsameta monastery and at 9 Km from Kutaisi the impressive Gelati
monastery complex.

Gelati Monstery

If you have time, don’t miss Svanetia region! To reach the
town of Mestia you will pass a spectacular road with small towns such Lenjeri.

Inside the small church of Lenjeri

I
recommend sleep at least one or two nights in Mestia to visit the small
villages with the koshkebi, or defensive towers built between 9-11th
Centuries.

Village around Mestia

Villagea around Mestia

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Koshkebi (defensive towers)

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The remote town of Ushguli, at 2100 m above the sea level, is a 47
Km from Mestia. The road is unpaved. It has many Svan towers and it is on the Unesco World Heritage
list.

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Ushguli

Musical
activities

Art-Gene
Festival. This festival is held every year on July. It usually plays Georgian
groups, but also from other European or Asian countries. It is complemented
with dances, theatre and children’s activities.There are exhibitions and sales of traditional arts, crafts and food. It
takes place in the Open-Air Museum of Ethnography, at the south-west of the old
town. http://www.artgeni.ge/

There are many wooden houses from 14
ethnographic areas from Georgia and exhibitions of different kinds of ethnographic
tools, rugs, and ceramics.

State
Museum of Georgian Folk Songs & Musical Instruments. (Address: 6 Samgrebo
St). It is a small museum, centrally located in the old town, with three rooms
where you can see all the musical instruments commonly played in Georgia, but also
from Azerbaijan and some European countries. There are nice old pictures of
Georgian and Azari musicians The museum was created on the basis of AV Revazishivili's collection of musical instruments in 1975. A nice guy made me an explanation in English of the instruments on display. An interesting short video coud be also seen. This small museum is highly recommended!http://www.openmuseum.org/webpage/show/1191

Inside of the Museum. Azari instruments

Near
the entrance of the museum there is a small shop of musical instruments, in
which there are several used instruments on display and very few instruments
for selling, such panduries and salamuries. The seller doesn’t speak English.

Learn
to sing and to dance in Lenjeri. In the nice and small town of Lenjeri in Svanetia region,
two km from Mestia, components of the Riho Ensemble organizes singing and
dancing classes for several days. Sleeping and foot is provided. Singing
classes are given by the director of the Riho Ensemble and his son, Islam and
Vekhatang Pilpani, and dancing classes are given by Archil Murgvliani. If you
are interested how to sing vocal polyphonic songs you have to go and you will
be very welcomed. In this town you will also see the typical koshkebi or
defensive towers of this región. During my visit to Mr.V.Pilpani, there was people from Canada, US, Australia and other countries, which were taking lessons of singing and dancing.https://www.facebook.com/vakhtang.pilpani

Mr. Islam Pilpani

Islam &Vekhatang Pilpani, with a changi

Dancing class with Archil Murgvliani

Archil Murgvliani

Vekhatang Pilpani & Blog author

MUSIC
OF GEORGIA

Traditional
music is well preserved specially in the mountainous areas. Polyphonic singing
of Georgia has been included in the World Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in
2001.

Singeres in a wedding in Motsameta Monastery

Polyphonic
Vocal Singing. It is very charactherisc of Georgia. Male choirs may use two,
three of four part singing polyphonies depending on the region with different
styles. The most common is the three part form: top, middle and bass voices.
The bass voice use to be the chorus, the middle voice is the soloist part and
the top use to be the second voice. It is characteristic the improvisation and
competitive spirit. Polyphonic songs are used in working, drinking and wedding
events. They are also used in masquerade performances, rituals laments or
religious celebrations. There are also liturgical and funeral polyphonic songs.
Vocal polyphonic songs may be sang acappella or accompanied by the pander. In Samaria
may by also accompanied by the change and circle dances. Lullabies are mainly sang
by a single woman accompanied by the chonguri. In Georgia you can easily found
by chance a vocal choir singing in a church, in a wedding o around a table.

Recommended
CDs

There
are very few CDs available in the international market, many of the have been
released in France, and some of them are out-of-print. Below I list some the I recommend.

Riho
Ensemble. Vocal Polyphonies from Svanetia.Inedit, France. Highly recommended. Choral singing directed by Islam
Pilpani. The group sings epic, ritual, religious songs. Some of these songs are
used for round dancing. Few songs are accompanied by the chuniri and changi. It
was recorded on 1999 in France.

Folk
Music from Georgia Today. Wergo, Germany, 1993. Twenty six traditional by three
different ensembles: Solnari, Mtiebi and Mzetanze. Recorded on 1991 in Berlin, Male
and Women Choral songs, some accapella, with panduri or dholi. Some songs with
the wind instrument named duduk.

Rustavi
Choir. Georgian Voices. Anthology of Georgian folk songs, 1991 Nonesuch
Explorer Series. Recordings from Melodiya Records between 1981 and 1988. The
artistic director is Anzor Erkomaishvili. Several styles and types of songs are
included: work, laments, table, and sacred songs. Rustavi Choirs is one the
most famous. They have recorded many CDs in various labels.

Songs
of Survival. Traditional Music of Georgia, Topic , 2007. 2CD compilation album
by the UK based label and compiled by Michael Church. Fifty one songs of
several artists and a complete inner booklet. Highly recommended.

The
Shin. For those who want to explore a different kind of music, I recommend this
trio. It is a progressive
folk/world fusion group founded in 1998 by Zaza Miminoshvili (guitars,
panduri), Zurab J. Gagnidze (electric and acoustic bass, vocals) and Mamuka
Gaganidze (vocals, percussion). The trio is based in Germany, they are well
known around Central and Eastern Europe because of their regular live shows (usually
with different guest folk and jazz musicians, dancers, etc. They have released
several albums: Tseruli, 1999, Ibero-Caucasian style, 2003; Many Timer, 2004;
EgAri, 2006; and Black sea fire, 2009. Highly recommended.http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=5505

Recommended
References:

Vertkov
K et al. Atlas of Musical Instruments of the Peoples Inhabiting the USSR.,
State Publishers Music, Moscow, 1975. In Russian. Some parts with English
translation. Out-of-Print.

Wonderful
page of Levan Bregvadze. There are many great pictures of folk musical
instruments of Georgia with explanations of how to tuning them. Many songs may
be listen to online of groups such
Rustavi, Umuli, Adila, Lashari, Georgika and others.

http://www.adila.ge/.Page of the Ensemble
Adile and the choirmaster and musical instruments maker Maizer Gazdeliani. They have released two albums.

The
most characteristic traditional instruments of Georgia are the chordophones: the panduri, the chonguri and the changi (in the
Svanetia region, north-west of Georgia).

Some
instruments of Georgia are played in other Caucasian countries (e.g. Azerbaijan,
Armenia), specially the aerophones and and membraphones instruments.

In
Tbilisi and other cities imported Caucasian or Persian instruments such as saz,
ud, rabab and duduk (in Georgian: duduki) are played. The accordion (garmon), the concertina (buzika) and even the Spanish guitar has
been adopted as instruments of accompaniment. Urban music with western
harmonies using guitar accompaniment is being popular in the cities and around
the country. e.g. Listen to the song "Suliko" in youtube.

Chordophones

Panduri. It is the most popular. It is a plucked fretted lute with three strings. The resonance
box is hollow and with a boat shape. The shape may change according to the
regions and maker. In eastern Georgia mountains is used the Mtiuluri panduri (fanduri)
with a lengthened boat shape resonance box. The panduri is used as accompaniment
of dances and songs.

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Panduri

Panduri

Fanduri *

Chonguri.
Plucked unfretted lute with four strings. It is usually played by women.

Chonguri

Chianuri.
Two/three bowed instrument. There are no frets in the neck. The resonance box is
rounded with stretched leather. It is played with a bow. The chuniri it is a
similar instrument played in Svanetia.

Chianuri

Changi.
Triangular harp. It is very popular in Svanetia. A similar instrument can be also
found in Abkhazia as ayumaa and Ossetia as duodastanon.

Changi

Aerophones

Larchemi/Soinari.
Panpipe with six cane tubes. Different sizes and tunings. Played by megrelians
and gurians, respectively, of western Georgia and close to Black Sea.

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Soinari

Salamuri.
Whistle flute made of cane or wood with 6-8 finger-holes. It is similar to the Azeri
tutek and Armenian tutak.

Salamuri

Zurna.
Reed wind instrument with a conical ending. It has a double reed made of a
flattened cane on a metal pin. It is also very popular in Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Zurna

Pilili.
Reed wind instrument used in West of Georgia as accompaniment of dances and
comic songs.

Pilili

Gudastviri.
Bagpipe with two melody pipes and no drone. “Guda” means bag and “stviri” means
pipe. The Chiboni is a bagpipe played in the south of Georgia. It is popular in
Ajaria region. It is similar to the Armenian parakapzuk and the Turkish tulum.
The meskhetians in the south of Georgia, bordering Turkey, they also use the
word tulum.

Georgian common
ensembles use the salamuri, chonguri and panduri; panduri and daira; changi
and chuniri; chiboni and dholi. Other Caucasian
instruments may be used as an ensemble of a pair of dudukis accompanied by dholi and an
accordion accompanied by a clarinet. In the picture below you can see a male choir with women holding a panduri, and other instruments such as the accordion (garmon) and doli.

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Kakhetian Choir

Other
Caucasian instruments from other non-Gerogian regions

Duduki: Wind instrument with a sweet and mellow sound. It is very popular in Armenia, being the most famous Armenia player Djivan Gasparyan.